bassman7755

8 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Yes i remember gigging with the prototypes, they could be overwhelming  My drummer at the time once repeatedly asked me to turn it up, so I did, at the end of the first set he said 'I couldn't hear my effing snare drum'

 

covering one port won't be enough to make a real difference try going down to two. This is what it will do to frequency response

Surely if all you want is this minor EQ tweak then its better to achieve it earlier in the signal chain (pickup mix, instrument tone controls, an EQ effect, amp tone controls etc) - the speaker is surely the worst place to do it as your wasting power and efficiency. 

28 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Speaking of on-stage monitors @steve-norris an active PA monitor could actually be a very good value solution, for what you're after, particularly if you're pairing with a pre-amp pedal or a even a cheap multifx. like the Zoom B1-4, which has multiple pre-amp sims available.

 

E.g. an Alto TS 308 will give you all the power you need and comes in below £250.

I practice at home using my B4-1 into my hifi setup.

2 hours ago, TimR said:

 

I'd hazard a guess that those bands never heard of dynamics internal or external. If you're playing with good musicians that should never happen.

True, there an ability level above which this doesn't happen so much but that accounts for a fairly small minority of players and bands in my experience.

26 minutes ago, ubit said:

 

 

Get a grip. You learn from your mistakes. Clear enough?

To explain what said before a bit further, what I've observed in the past is that bands than don't practice/rehearse (at all or not particular songs which "everyone knows inside out") experience "drift" rather than actual mistakes i.e. the songs change over time and usually for the worst. Nuances get lost, songs degrade from having their own unique groove and edge to song-x-played-in-the-generic-style-of-the-band.

I imagine at some point we've all seen a really boring covers bands where the chords and melody change but not much else throughout the whole set. Of course that's an extreme example but a lot of bands suffer from this to some degree. Its a trap I've fallen into myself thinking "oh this song is so easy I/we don't need to practice it" and then having actually listened to the original having not done so for years sometime I'm actually quite shocked at how much essence of it has been lost and how much a travesty of it our version of it has become.

1 hour ago, kwmlondon said:

Well, it got a very good setup not long ago so I'm reluctant to shell out another £35 on it for a setup plus £40 to fit a nut plus the cost of the nut plus a new set of strings (because if it's getting all that attention I'd put new strings on) - I may do but not for a while yet.

 

Thinking about it more objectively it's likely to be the neck because if it was the nut I'd have noticed it before now - I tend to doubt myself and think "why didn't I notice this before, I can't have been playing this bass enough" rather than "this used to be fine, what's changed?"

 

Also, I'd like to try more 5-strings now I'm getting more of a feel for this one. I don't mind spending proper money if it something I really know I'll like and that I'll play but at the moment I'm still working that out. 

This is a good explanation of how to check the truss rod tension, essentially you just fret the bottom string at 1st and last frets at the same time and check the gap, too big a gap (at its maximum point) between the string and fret means the rod is too loose, no gap means its too tight:

Also I think you need to take the string change out of the cost equation too, as you will probably want to put new ones on anyway at some point (and if you dont then theres no reason to do so for the setup). Plus you might buy a new bass and in a years time it have the same problem as the neck has settled and needs readjustment.

1 hour ago, kwmlondon said:

I thought of this, considered cutting some of the inside of a biro to make some sleeve for the strings to go above the nut. If anyone's got any better suggestions for a quick-fix then I'd give it a go.

You probably need something thinner that that, a bit of thin paper as an experiment. If that is the problem I then it should be a very easy fix to raise the nut slightly: heat gun or iron to release the glue, glue a thin wooden shim underneath and re glue nut. You can even build up an individual string height using superglue and some filler like cotton wool. Theres loads of youtube vids on both.

2 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

True for many,but there are some bands who are tight by gigging so don't need rehearsals to get tight. (Note: I have never been part of such a band!).

I too have never experienced this phenomena of gigging acting as rehearsal, my experience is that faults in the way a band play a song tend to become worse over time not better, these are not "mistakes" as such but deviations of how the song is supposed to be played that creep in over time. Usually to do with things like exactly which chord changes should be syncopated (e.g. change a half beat ahead) vs not.

The only way I can imagine this happening are a) every member of the band is a top tier players with great attention to detail b) noone give a stinky poo if the songs are a bit ropey as long as roughly the right thing was played and vocal melody as more or less right. I actually do know of one or two bands in the former category but they are originals outfits and I generally don't "do" original bands.

The epi 310 is like a 750w rms cab with fairly decent sensitivity as I recall having owned one some years back, I played in some pretty loud bands and never scratched the surface of what that cab was capable of TBH. If your after more volume I'm pretty sure the cab isnt the limiting factor.

2 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

Could just try rail pickups instead of ones with individual pole pieces?

 

I think Bartolinis and some EMGs are rails under the covers.

Yeah the original pickups are emg selects which I think are blades, but I was specifically looking for something with more old school sound so wanting to try something alnico V based.

3 hours ago, Maude said:

 

Which achieves what? 

 

That's not meant to sound as abrupt as it does. I'm genuinely interested in what this does to the sound. 

🙂

Hum cancellation - you've essentially got a humbucker but with one coil inside the other. 

8 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I'm using an Orange Terror head which has two 4 ohm speaker outputs

Your amp does not have two 4 ohm outputs, it has one 4 ohm output with 2 parallel output jacks wired to it. Which is why ...

7 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

Looking at the manual, the minimum load is 4 Ohms, so both cabs would need to be 8 Ohms. It will do 1x8, 2x8, or 1x4.

... is the formula you are looking for.

Sorry had to be done ...

2 hours ago, ubit said:

  Heres the tab, watch out it is quite tricky!

 

 

Great thing about this tune is it easy to transpose, you know incase the singer cant be silent in tune on the high notes.

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

Thanks Phil. I'm looking for a "one size fits all" solution. I'm joining a new band that play larger venues where PA provision will be better than what I was previously used to, but I can also see me needing just my amp and no PA cover for smaller gigs. Good point on the drummer, I shall ask him.

 

The rationale behind my choice of 15s or 4x10 was not scientifically informed. I like the sound of two fifteens having had it before. I don't like the sound of a single 2x10 or my fifteen with a 2x10, but I thought a good quality 4x10 would be a decent single cab solution. I don't find the single fifteen on its own very good but I've never angled it before. 

Your likes and dislikes will be related to the specific cab designs, not the fact that they are 15's or 10's. I guarantee you that there plenty of 2x10s that you would love and 15's that you would hate.

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

If you play all the fills.

 

Folks do realise the chorus isn't just 3 or 4 notes? This will play from 4:20:

 

 

What have I started ?? 😉. But yes there is some very tasty major pentatonic riffing going on, and then it ends on those pumping octaves. Such great playing deserves to be done justice, busking it up is just sacrilege really.

2 hours ago, Skinnyman said:

In fairness, even I managed to nail the verse on first listen.

 

Took a bit longer for the chorus, but the verse? Easy

I didnt say it was not a potential one-listener for someone with decent ability. Rather I used as an example of a song that you could not play convincingly by busking it from just knowing the chords e.g. by just following the bands guitarist, having never sat down to listen to it (even if only once). Another example would be Run To You.

15 minutes ago, upside downer said:

 

Sounds sensible. If it's a complicated part I'll break it down in sections and work out a chunk at a time. 

Same here for really tricky bits but I'll will always learn the tune first before trying to play it.

So let me throw this into the mix - when I have a learn a new song I listen to it repeatedly until I can hum/sing the bassline by heart before ever picking up the bass. Discuss 🧨

15 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

Just play TO the chords. If you know the chord the individual notes are usually pretty intuitive. You shouldn't have to be sitting there picking out individual notes of a run. 

Well of course that what I meant, I mean really have you nothing better to do than such nitpicking ? (and no this doesnt work for the song in question).

3 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

 

Can't agree with that. I've played in several covers bands without ever having heard the originals of their songs. I just play to the chords. In some cases, I might hear a song on a pub jukebox and think it sounds vaguely familiar and realise it is the original of something I've played, but as I never listen to any 'pop' music, it is new to me. Doesn't change how I play the song.

 

It is years since I've sat down and listened to music - even my shelf of treasured Grateful Dead CDs is looking rather dusty.

Try playing All right Now "just playing the chords", that would be amusing to watch.

4 hours ago, Bridgehouse said:

Actually, on a serious note, a flippant “one listen through is enough” is disrespectful to the other musicians in the band, and to the audience.

+1.  If I take the trouble to go and see a band I expect them to made at least some effort to learn the songs properly, I'm fine with a reinterpretation, not fine with someone obviously busking it having never sat down and learned it. 

7 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Even if I just decided to play with one band and a single bass sound was completely appropriate for all the songs in the set, I'd still use the same Helix and FRFR set up because it gives me enough options to get that one right sound without having to think about swapping amps and/or cabs and getting into that endless buying and selling spiral of looking for "the tone". 

Plus everyone gets to hear the same tone, you and the band and the audience through the PA (where appropriate).

7 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

And pole pieces placed exactly under their corresponding strings is pure bullsh*t as the magnetic field is the same even between the adjacent pole pieces unless you put your string so close to these pole pieces that they will attract the string and create very weird harmonics making you think your instrument is always out of tune.

But as you can see the middle string is way out of whack and measuring the output with it seemed to be slightly lower, not by much though, if I couldn't see it I probably wouldn't even notice. But your right in that its a case of 80% aesthetics 20% function probably in this case.

I also fancy the idea of trying to make a concentric coil humbucker, wierdly there seems to be zero info on the net about building such a thing. The idea being that you reverse wind an outer coil (that has slightly fewer winds to compensate for the increased diameter).

2 hours ago, karlbbb said:

But with this example rig you'd lose out on an immense versatility! To make it a fair comparison, you'd need to also buy every head your modeler can model, plus every cab available

Well the comparison is really with the modelled stuff you actually use since the stuff you dont is of no value, but even there it usually wins. 

1 hour ago, Phil Starr said:

Getting the in ears right is the revelation, you can hear everything like you can in the studio recordings

Yeah I urge everyone to try it, at least once. Its the lack of fatigue of both ears and brain that was the revelation for me - instead of feeling knackered at the end of the gig I felt like I could go right out and do it again.